Racquetball Ball Guide: Everything You Need To Know

Did you know that racquetballs come in a variety of colors, with each color having its meaning? For instance, the black balls are often used in tournaments by senior players. Other colors include blue, purple, green, red, and pink. But besides their color variations, how long do the racquetball balls last?

A racquetball ball’s ability to last or not depends on several factors, including its freshness, color, and texture. Furthermore, your experience playing racquetball balls and the strength you use to hit the ball contributed to the ball’s durability.

Racquetball balls can be quite confusing, given their different colors and their expected bounces. Find out more about the balls, as well as your best racquetball buying guide below.

Do Racquetball Balls Go Dead?

Racquetball balls go dead when they lose their bounce and fail to bounce as they would previously. The losing bounce effect occurs due to frequent use of the ball along with the ball’s depreciation factor even when not in use.  

It is best to say that once you open the container for your racquetball balls, the balls start losing their bounce immediately. The reaction continues even when you are not using the ball because of interactions from atmospheric air.

Balls for racquetball are typically made of soft rubber-like those used in car tires because rubber is bouncier than wood or metal. There have been debates around using a strong material for the ball so that it does not depreciate with time. Nevertheless, there is still an element of weight in the game as well as speed.

The red balls have the heaviest weight, but you will also notice that the weight factor affects the pace at which they move. For this reason, heavier balls in the game are only meant to be used by advanced players.

 A beginner will have their light ball that will make the game easier for them. Nonetheless, with time, you should be able to handle even the heaviest of balls.

Furthermore, wood and metal would not be suitable for racquetballs due to their increased density, which would affect their pace. Moreover, such materials can dent off racquetball courts, yet furnishing and building them is very expensive.

Learn more: How Long Do Racquetballs Last? (And When To Replace Them)

Are Racquetball Ball’s Pressurized?

Racquetballs are not pressurized, but they can still lose their bounce (go dead) and feel useless. So unless you get a sealed racquetball, it means you will also have a racquetball that feels flat, almost as it is in car tires.

Players getting into racquetball are attracted by the affordable prices of racquetball balls and find them compelling. Whenever you meet someone like this, chances are, they are going to ask you, “Aren’t those racquetballs too cheap, or do they easily go bad?”

At least every advanced racquetball player has experienced the frustration of a new ball without bounce when they are eager to test their skills. You, therefore, need to know that racquetball balls are kept fresh in sealed, unopened canisters due to the seals.

• Once the seal is broken, the ball’s freshness fades away gently, and the fading might be too slow to notice unless you check the bounce of each ball every 15 to 20 minutes. The basic principle behind air sealing cans is;
• The sealed air can contains a certain amount of pressure that keeps the ball fresh, but when you remove the seal, you expose the ball to the atmosphere’s air pressure, which results in a less reliable ball even without its use.

For this reason, every player in a racquetball tournament carries two sealed canisters of balls on them. This is due to their sensitivity to pressure changes, so one of the cans is typically used for warm-ups while the other can goes for tournament competitions. 

• You can check the bounce of your balls by holding two balls in your hands and releasing them together. There will be one ball that bounces taller and longer than the other, and before it calms down, it still bounces high.  On the other hand, a ball that is on its way to going dead will have its first short bounce followed by very short ripple bounces before calming down.

What Color Racquetball Ball Is Best for Beginners?

Blue racquetball balls are the best for beginners in the game because of their lightweight and bounce consistency. These balls are also the best for recreational purposes so that they can be helpful for a practicing beginner. However, their durability is not guaranteed.

Are you new to the racquetball field? Here the racquetballs vary in different colors, with each of them having specific abilities.

Here is some info you will like about the different colors in the racquetballs:

Purple Racquetballs

These are the best official balls for the international Racquetball tour, utilized for outstanding tournaments.

These purple balls are specifically for advanced players because they can get you so lively and on your toes every other second.

They have low durability status; as a result, you may need to have replacements for them every time you use them.

Black Racquetballs

The black racquetball balls are durable and can move quite fast.

They have longer rallies since they tend to overstay up. The longer rallies need smart player moves.

Blue Racquetballs

These balls are best for recreational purposes.

The blue racquetball balls are perfect for beginners because of their consistency in bounce.

Green Racquetballs

These are the best replacements for blue balls because of their lengthened durability.

They are much faster than blue and black balls, in addition to their shorter rallies from their lively bounces off every surface.

Red Racquetballs

The best use of these is for outdoor play and other areas with high wattage lighting since they are more visible than the other types. Some people use them indoors as well; however, it’s important to be cautious of the fact that they may impair visibility because of their easy clash with white light and the brown surfaces when they’re moving fast. The red balls are also quite heavy, but as long as you hit them hard, you can be sure of their fast pace.

Pink Racquetballs

There are no huge differences between the pink racquetball balls and red balls when it comes to outdoor play, excellent visibility fact, and their high speed.

Multicolored Racquetballs

The ball boasts its high visibility status, which makes it ideal for any indoor or outdoor arena. The multicolors are also the best choice for all colored courts.

They are also the best for fast speed.

Read also: How Do You Hit a Racquetball Harder? (7 Rules of Thumb)

How To Tell the Lifespan of Racquetballs?

To tell the lifespan of racquetball balls, you should look for the ball’s freshness, color, playing experience, and personal preference. Some people prefer to look at these factors and opt for their own customized balls directly from the racquetball manufacturing companies.

The objective of racquetball is to hit the ball in a way that will outperform your opponent’s ability to return it. Because the game does not have a net, the surrounding surfaces are part of the gameplay as well. You can use the ceiling, walls, and floor in the games, but you have to follow the rules about hitting what surface and when you cannot.

New balls have a texture that lets them grip on the walls and floors as they bounce. Playing the ball continuously, however, causes its texture to wear off faster. So, instead of gripping the surface, the ball slides on the surface and bounces more inconsistently, and gets slippery.  

However, the factors that determine the ball’s lifespan include:

1. Your Ball’s Freshness

The period in which you unlocked the can holding the balls determines your play period. You can’t expect a ball that you opened two months ago to bounce like a new ball, even though it still has its texture and grip.

2. The Ball’s Color

There are a variety of colors for racquetball balls, including blue, black, red, pink, green, and purple. These colors have different durability characteristics. For example, if you choose a purple ball, it will not last as long as a black or red ball; because purple balls are not durable. If you used green or black, you might be able to use it for quite some time before it becomes “dead.”

3. Personal Prefrence

Players differ from one another. A player can notice their ball has lost its grip and replace it immediately instead of waiting for it to lose its consistency. However, some players may change the ball within three or four games. In practice, beginners must continually watch their ball since they might not want to replace it unless it has lost its grip.

Some players cannot tell if a ball has a good grip, so to make sure you check for this important factor, look at the logo; if it’s impossible to see, you need to get new racquetball balls.

4. Playing Experience

Depending on your experience level, you may play the game more or less frequently. So if you play the game every other day of the week, the chances are high that the ball will not last long. If you do not play quite frequently, the racquetball may last a little longer, but atmospheric pressure will still wear it out.

In your playing experience, you must have a strategic hit level for your ball. Therefore, the amount of power you use on the ball will also determine its lasting period.

How To Choose What Racquetballs To Buy?

Racquetball balls are available in a wide array of colors, each representing a unique specification for usage, speed, durability, or visibility. You can choose from red, pink, purple, black, green, and blue racquetball colors. Furthermore, you may need to confirm the number of balls in the sealed container in addition to the colors.

In the earlier part of this article, I mentioned that each racquetball ball color has unique specifications designed to ensure that you get the most out of them as long as you use them correctly. Because of this, you may feel the need to consider the size of racquetball balls when purchasing them, but this is no longer necessary. As all racquetballs come in a standard size of 2.25 inches, and they are all made out of soft rubber.

So here are some of the things you might have to consider when thinking of buying racquetball balls:

1. Organization

Various racquetball organizations that organize and manage different tournaments may use different types of balls. Some of them might be engaging directly indirect contracts with the manufacturers for customized racquetball balls. In case you’re planning to buy racquetball balls similar to those you saw during a tournament, you should be aware that not all racquetball organizations use the same ball.

2. Ball Amount In the Container

Racquetball balls are preserved under equilibrium pressure to maintain their freshness, which is why they come in containers. There are, therefore, two-ball containers, three-ball cans, or a 12-ball jug available for racquetball balls. There is also the cost-efficiency factor to consider. The 12-ball jug, for instance, is more cost-effective than buying a single ball or smaller cans.

3. Experience

The color and texture of a bouncing ball are easy to tell apart if you’ve played the game before. Some people can tell the texture by looking at the logo on the ball. You can pick out other balls once you cannot see the features you need on the ball if you are in this group.

For beginners who haven’t experienced racquetball balls and courts enough, this can be quite challenging. As soon as the logo on the ball starts to fade, the ball begins to lose its bounce. In these cases, make sure you always check the ball’s manufacturer logo. As a result, when the logo is no longer visible, the ball has also completely lost its bounce.

However, here are the balls coloring from the least bouncing ball to the most consistent bouncing ball;

Least Bouncing Balls

• Black balls
• Blue balls
• Green balls
• Purple balls
• Red balls
• Pink balls

Most Consistent Bouncing Balls